[Photo updated September 2023] This Greek chicken soup (aka Avgolemono) was the single most popular dinner we ran in Cookie magazine (RIP) when I was working there, most likely because it takes 15 minutes to whip up from start to finish, and yet…I had never actually tried it until last Thursday. At which point Phoebe picked up her bowl and drank… Read more »
At around 6:00 the other night, six-year-old Abby made her way into the kitchen to ask what she usually asks at 6:00 when I’m in the kitchen. “Mom, what’s for dinner?” Even though Andy had started hacking up a butternut squash about six hours earlier, even though I was standing there over a stock pot, wielding an immersion blender, minutes… Read more »
You know how I love my Jim Lahey pizza crust. How it has revolutionized pizza night in our house. How it is so easy to make that even someone who has never baked before can figure it out in about two seconds. Well, sometimes easy doesn’t translate to quick (the crust takes two un-manned hours to rise) and sometimes, revolution… Read more »
. Saturday afternoon, week before last, was one of those moments when you think, man, having kids is fun. I mean, it’s almost always fun and it’s not like hanging out with the kids on a sunny weekend afternoon is ever a hardship, but this was different. I feel like last Saturday marked some kind of occasion, a corner turned… Read more »
Since discovering the oven-roasted shawarma recipe (<gift link) from the Times in December, I’ve made it a half dozen times — sometimes for company, sometimes for an easy Sunday dinner, sometimes with homemade yogurt flatbread (page 222 The Weekday Vegetarians), sometimes over rice with yogurt sauce and mint. The recipe, with nearly 20,000 reviews, is wildly popular for a reason: It always delivers. Unless, of course,… Read more »
There’s a new cookbook out today called Hot Sheet, by Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine, which is an ode in recipe form to all the ways the humble sheet pan makes a home cook’s life easier, from starters and snacks, through dinnertime and dessert. Good lord, everything looks so delicious and — here’s what shocked me for a sheet pan cookbook… Read more »
Friends! News! I’d like to introduce you to my next book, The Weekday Vegetarians: Get Simple, which will be published in August, and is available for pre-order as of TODAY. How badly do you want to eat the cover? Here is a brief list of the kind of people who might enjoy Get Simple: Busy people. Smart people. Meat-loving people… Read more »
In the elevator this morning, I ran into my neighbor, a mom of two young kids, who immediately said “I’m so glad the city canceled school, it’s miserable out there!” I nodded in agreement, even though I had zero idea that school had even been canceled. It’s been so long since I’ve had to think about snow days! I will conveniently gloss… Read more »
I’ve been a Weekday Vegetarian for over five years and though now it feels easy, a lot of that is because I’m not cooking for my college-age children on a daily basis anymore. When I was just getting started, with younger kids who weren’t always, shall we say, receptive to the plan, I remember how much I appreciated coming across a recipe… Read more »
Greetings to my dear eaters and readers. I hope you all had joyful and meaningful holidays however you celebrate. I write this first newsletter of 2024 with a deeply heavy heart — my father, Ivan Rosenstrach, died on December 25, 2023. His life was rich with family and community and friendship and we spent the last week of the year… Read more »
It’s always a good day when I get to tell you about a new book from Yossy Arefi, member of an elite crew of recipe writers who meet me where I am, namely: in no-fuss, no-brainer baked good land. Her latest book, Snacking Bakes, speaks my love language, offering up baked treats (bars, brownies, cookies, cakes) that can be made in under… Read more »
Don’t tell Great Grandma Turano, whose namesake meatballs have been the default in our house for decades, but we’ve been silently betraying her for the last year and half. It all started when I read about Anna Francese Gass and hergrandmother’s meatballs, featured in Gass’s 2019 cookbook Heirloom Kitchen: Heritage Recipes and Family Stories from the Tables of Immigrant Women. The recipe has roots in Calabria, and calls for… Read more »
September, as always, was a busy month, compounded — in a good, happy, lucky way — by our move to Manhattan. Which is probably why this past Sunday, our first completely free day in what felt like weeks, Andy turned to me and said “Why do I feel like I still don’t know my own kitchen?” I knew what he meant,… Read more »
Anyone who has spent a minute reading Dinner: A Love Story knows about my affection for Leah Koenig’s cookbooks, which I turn to all year long, but especially this time of year as we head into the Jewish holidays. A leading authority on Jewish food, Koenig is a genius at interpreting traditional dishes in a progressive, respectful, and of course,… Read more »
Moving was stressful — lists upon lists upon lists upon lists — but I’ll tell you one part of it that was downright therapeutic: Cooking down the fridge. It’s that magical combination of creativity and frugality that feels almost like a competitive sport to me. (Me against…the trash can?) Not to brag, but I’d definitely make varsity. There were ice… Read more »
I confess this was actually last week in grilled chicken, and also that it will most likely be next week in grilled chicken and possibly the week after that, too, because the dinner is that good — so fresh and flavorful and just plain beautiful — and I should probably try to control myself before I overdo it. (Longtime readers may recognize the dinner as a new… Read more »
When we were in Maine a few weeks ago, we road-tripped to Damariscotta, a picture-perfect town on the Damariscotta River famous for its pristine, hearty oysters. It’s one of those small towns that seemed to have every business necessary to live the good life as a food lover — a butcher-gourmet store, a seafood market, a robust used bookstore, an… Read more »
It’s not summer til we eat…How would you finish that sentence? The list is long for us, but we managed to check off three major boxes this past week on our Maine vacation — First there was warm Triple Berry Pie with ice cream, which was store-bought, but really reminded me of the one I am about to embark on baking all… Read more »
Welcome! I’m Jenny, author of Dinner: A Love Story and The Weekday Vegetarians More
